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PKDSENTICn BY 



PRESERVATION OF FORESTS 

AS A 

MEASURE OF PUBLIC SAFETY 



Address Delivered Before the 

Seventeenth 
National Irriojation Consjress 



HELD AT 

SPOKANE, WASHINGTON. U. S. A. 

AUGUST. 190y. 



y BY THE BRAZILIAN DELEGATE 

L. BAETA-NEVES, Mining and Civil Entrjneer. 



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THE PRESERVATION OF FORESTS AS A MEASURE OF 
PUBLIC SAFETY. 

Address before the 1 7th National Irrigation Congress, Spokane, Wash., 

August, 1909. 

by 

L. BAETA-NEVES 

Mining and Civil Engineer; Graduate of the Ouro Prete Mining School, Brazil; Chief of 
the Technical Deparlmenl of the Directory of Railway and Public Works in Minas 
Geraes, Brazil; Member of the Historic and Geographic Institute of the same state; 
Member of the National Geographic Society of Washington; Knight of Columbus; 
Honorary Member of the Rotary Club of Los Angeles, Cal.; Representative of the 
Brazilian Government before the Scientific Congresses 16th Irrigation and 3rd 
Dry Farming in America, and Vice-President and Corresponding Secretary of this 
Congress; Special Delegate of Brazil before the 17th National Irrigation Congress 
at Spokane, Wash., where, by selection, he addressed the meeting on behalf of 
the Foreign Represensatives. 

r I'eally feA li'Iful i\nd exceeding'ly hoiioi-ed in coining- ag'ain 
hcforc this Congress and my pleasure is great in telling you 
once more how much I appreciate the warm welcome of the 
North American people, and how much I have enjoyed the 
pleasant stay in this most hospitable city. 

I come now with the same feelings and sentiment that I 
li'ied to translate to >()u on the opening session of this most 
impoi'tant meeting full of very valua))le lessons from any view 
jjoiiit ; on that day T had the great honor of speaking to you 
on behalf of the foreign delegates of this convention bringing 
greetings from the Brazilian Government and fr(un the dif- 
ferent nations here represented. But now. allow me to say, 
Ameri'cans. and distinguished representatives of foreign conti- 
nents and islands, thar translating the g-ood feelings and altru- 
istic sentiment of the ])eople of the countries of Columbus, T 
a)n going- to speak wWh my whole soul, my whole heart, on 
behalf of the sacred I'ights of humanity, addressing you on a 
subject very dear to me in which I have been deeply interested 
since my childhood ; a subject on wliich T have learned a great 
deal from two men of universal reputation, who. for the glory 



of tlie Avcstern hemisphere, were born under tlie purest sky 
of America — I mean Roosevelt and GiflPord Pinchot. I stand 
for the forest, for the preservation of forests, as a measure of 
public safety. My paper is in part an extract of a report that 
I sent to Brazil to be read this week at the request of the 
4th International American jMedical Cono-ress, held now at Rio 
l)e Janeiro "on the most efficacious means of preventing- and 
k^ssening- the effects of periodical droughts." In that paper I 
wrote, about the lessons of the Irrigation Cong-ress, which 
lessons we are already profiting by, having improved the Irri- 
gation projeets of which I wrote the address printed in the i)ro- 
ceedings of the 16th National Irrig'ation Congress, last year. 
I am pleased to say tliat in this report I emphasized also the 
great work which has been done by the dry farming Congress, 
\\iH_)se lessons ai'e the best to teach the pe()])U\ of the arid 
district of the woi'hl, how to nse profitable by the water, almost 
always so expensive and difficult to be obtained in such dis- 
tricts. You will find on the last proceedings of the dry farm- 
ing Congress at Cheyenne, a ])aper of mine on the combination 
of irrigation and dry farming lu'ocesses, which comliination I 
think will give the liest results in rendering more fit to sustain 
life a region subject to drought. To the medical Congress. I 
suggested that a branch of the dry farming of America should 
be established in Brazil according to the wishes of its indefat- 
igable secretary my good friend !!Mr. John T. Burns.. Being 
re(|uest<Ml by his excellem-y (Jovernor Xorris. of ^Montana to 
woi'k in Brazil, as a vice-president and corresponding secretary 
(»f the Congress I feel exceedingly honored in giving my very 
best service to my brothers of North America, assuring them 
:hat they can count upon my great admiration f(U' your coun- 
try, where I am living for one year with my family always in 
close touch with the American family and peoijle. Allow me to 
sa.w ladies ami gentlemcui. that keeping the same love for my 
Mati\'e land, in luy heart, will have for ever a Avarm room for 
the American people. But let me stop, ladies aiul gentlemen, of 
speaking of my feeling that, in spite of my sincerity. I cannot 
ixpi'ess by woi'ds as tliey come frgm the 1)ottom of my heart: 
Ihe \\hi)|e session would be loo'shdrt for t I'aiislnl ing them and 



1 imist i;'<^> back to the subject of my paper. In my report to 
the Interiiaitional jNIedieal Congress I wrote also about the 
Cactus of Luther Burbank. of California, and incidentally I 
called the attention of the Brazilian Enoineers to the recent 
l)rocess in which the English government is noAV interested, 
facilitating the atmospheric precipitations for small water 
supply near the coast, causing the deposit of dew as has been 
practiced in Gibraltar T have read something about this pro- 
cess on an interesting jvaper of ^Nlr. (leorge Hurbard read this 
year on March 3rd. before the Royal Society of Arts, London : I 
wrote too about the forests considering them like T am about to 
do. 

The importance of forests as protectors of mankind is an 
iucontroversible fact, and there is no spirit, less observing as it 
may be, that has not noticed, even sli^iitly. some intluence of 
the trees in benefitting life. 

At different times I have treated tliis i^iportant subject 
that impressed nic so nuu-h. in the national and foreign press 
and in public acidresses here in America, several times dis- 
cussing the intluence of the trees upon our life. Once speaking 
about the combined work of medicine and engineering in the 
noble and liumanitarian campaign to improve the means of 
life on the surface of this planet, especially to preserve and 
increase the vigor of the people, I said in part : 

"Life progressively is becoming very difficult to be pre- 
served in good conditions because of the incessant exhaustion 
of elements that are favorable to it on the 'surface of the earth, 
where a 'continuous transformation is observed all over. 

"The forests, the best protectors of our life, are going- fast, 
and from the modification that their disappearance is bringing 
to the climate and to the natural conditions all over the earth, 
will come serious troubles to the solution of the sanitary prob- 
lems in the future. 

' ' It is necessary to use intelligently so important elements 
of life, without so barbarous destructions, because so far as 
the present scientific knowledge is concerned, there is no doubt, 
at all, that from the lack of the forest will come the greatest 
modifications in the meteorological conditions of the earth. 
and you know, the meteorological conditions — the weather — 

3 



has the most positive influeni-e on onr life. This influence does 
not appear only on the health conditions, but, too, in the most 
complicate social phenomena. 

"The old proverb — 'Man is the son of his environments' 
- — is a translation of a truth scientifically demonstrated, prov- 
ing- the weather's influence. It is true that it means the law 
of adaptation, but the environments of man depend entirely 
upon the meteorological conditions. According to this law we 
could, perhaps, live even under bad conditions of weather, but 
such condition would bring an unhealthy condition of life, too. 
• "Professor Dexter, of the University of Illinois, studying 
the mental and physiological influence of the meteorological 
conditions, in one of his books, gives a comprehensive s'tudy of 
the question, proving the weather's influence o,n the organic 
and intellectual life, the emotions, the literary sentiments, the 
individual conduct. He proves priiuMi)alIy that the change of 
meteorological conditions affects the health more than any- 
thing else. 

"Under bad meteorological conditions we never would have 
the necessary reserve of energy for the complete activity of life. 

"And good meteorologi-cal conditions can be guaranteed 
only by the preservation of forests, that, unhappily for our 
future, does not receive from the people the deserved attention." 

Since the colonial time many Brazilians have been con- 
sidering the forests from a sanitary viewpoint. The patriarch 
of oiir independence Jose Bonifacio in 1815 wrote these phrases : 

"What other productions of Mother Nature ought to de- 
serve greater attention from the philosophers and stateraen 
than the forests and trees? Trees, wood and timber: Only 
these words, well meditated ui)on and luiderstood. are enough 
to awaken our whole sensibility." 

Besides other reasons there is a powerful one that makes 
necessary the protection of forest — its great influence upon 
health. Health is all, and upon it reposes the happiness of 
l)eople and the greatness and prosperity of the countries. 

On account of a rapid progress we must not sacrifice the 
forests as it has been done in many new -countries. 

Any progress detrimental to the vital forces of nature, is 



negative, ephemeral; if one generation profits by it, the follow- 
ing one fatally Avill suffer its consequences. 

This axiom, in my humble opinion, translates better the 
decline and disappearance of some nations that figured in 
antiquity than any explanation given by the modern philos- 
ophy for the fact; and forethought advises to profit by the 
practical lesson contained within it, preserving our natural 
resources in order not to sacrifice to a temporary greatness 
the best means of preserving life, which means are represented 
by the forest. 

The trees are great regulators of many conditions of life, 
principally facilitating the atmospheric precipitatiou and 
their profit. The aqueous vapors penetrating the cool atmos- 
phere of the forest at the contact of the foliage of the trees, 
condense resolving into rain or dew; and the water that falls 
on the soil, protected against evaporation by the shade, having 
its surface-fiow impeded and its absorption facilitated by the 
roots, penetrates in greatest quantity into the land, guarantee- 
ing the permanency and abundance of the source that it forms. 
The rainfall without the protecting vegetation rapidly 
fiows on the surface soil forming the run-off, which takes from 
the earth the fertilizing hunnis, excavating the mountain and 
producing the destructive overflow in the valley. 

In the countries where ice and snow do not appear th§ 
regimen of the water courses in a great measure depends upon 
the vegetation that covers the head of the streams; and such 
an influence is as great as the porosity of the soil is small in 
the generative basin of the sources. If there is yet controv- 
ersy which is progressively disappearing with more serious 
study about some forests' influences, there is not, all over the 
earth, any one who can scientifically contest this truth that his- 
tory and geography, the facets of the past and the observation 
of the present so clearly confirm. The Nile, which comes from 
the heart of Africa, born among the virgin forests where fire 
and men never have penetrated, keeps today, in an average, 
the same* flow that it had when it fertilized Egypt at the time 
of the Pharaohs. 

The effects of forests do not appear in confined zones. 



Their influence is not bounded by a certain region, and the 
calamity coming from their devastation passes over the indi- 
vidual property affecting the public welfare. This is an incon- 
testible truth that science demonstrates and facts corroborate. 
Therefore there is no reason why protection of forest must 
be concerned to a certain extension, not affecting the private 
lands. 

The individual right ought not to affect the high interests 
of the Union which ought to save its own future, guaranteeing 
by the preservation of the natural resources of the country, the 
general well-being of the present and future generations. 

This rational theory, applied to the case of forests, each 
day gains assent in this country being already accepted in the 
higher tribunals in favor of the legislation proj[;ecting such 
resources, which legislation is earnestly advocated by President 
Roosevelt, accordingly it was adopted on March 10. 1903 by the 
supreme court of Maine, and on April 6th of the same year, the 
supreme court of the United States sustained it, confirming 
the opinion of the court of errors and appeals of New Jersey. 

To the glory of us Brazilians this principle is the confirma- 
tion of a doctrine of which I spoke last here at Albuquerque, 
promulgated in 1802 ])y the eminent Brazilian. Dr. Francisco 
Saturnino Rodrigues de Brito. who wrote: 

"The argument against such laws has no reason for being. 
l)ecause the owner of the land is only a steward of the soil 
that was entrusted to him by the i)ast generations; he is the 
depository of lands as he is a depository of capital, and thus, 
as it has a social origin, territorial property must have a social 
application, in attending to collective interest; and these re- 
quire the individual eft'ort of each man to preserve and improve 
on the planet the necessary means of living, among which are 
the preservation and replantation of forests, that may keep 
the necessary moisture for regular rainfall and the normal dis- 
tribution of water, detaining it among their roots and not 
permitting the destructive overflows that take from the soil the 
fertilizing humus. The argument lias no reason for being, also, 
because the interest of the family itself requires providence 
against the prodigal member who steals from his own children 



the inheritance from the pas-t, giving to this improvident an 
egotistical father only the income of it; and as it happens with 
the inheritance, legislative enactment mnst regnlate the qnes- 
tion of lands for the interest of the social commnnity that has 
a great attainment from the Past, and comprehending the Pres- 
ent and the Fntnre." 

The argnments of President Roosevelt are very similar 
to those of the ilhistrions Brazilian engineer and the same 
thing can be said in regard to the reasons presented by the 
Supreme Conrt of the United States as quoted by the American 
President : 

"The State, as quasi-sovereign and representative of the 
interest of the public, has a standing in court to prote'Ct the 
atmosphere, the water and forests either in its territory, irre- 
s[)ective of the ascent or descent of the private owner of the 
hmd most immediately concerned." 

I am deeply convinced that the conscientious scruples of 
a great many of our eminent legislators and loyal men in ac- 
cepting this doctrine li(^ only in the fact that they are always 
busy with something else, never dedicating themselves to any 
serious study of the forests in their relations to life and the 
progress of countries; they have never considered that, on 
a'ccount of such relation, the sacred rights of humanity, the life 
of our children and future generations require a direct ana im- 
mediate protection for the trees, which protection is undoubt- 
edly a measure of public safety. And really such a protection 
iS as important as any other measure that may prevent the 
invasion and spread of some epidemic disease. 

To tlu^ 4th Latin-American Congress I moved that all 
possible efit'ort should be made to have Brazil and all nations 
represented at the congress accepted the proposition that is 
found in my address of forests last year, which proposition 
I write now as follows : 

''^Preservation oj Joresis in many ways nccessarv^ must he 
considered as a measure of public safety and it is of urgent 
necessity to maintain the permanency and abundance not only 
of the stream ftozv, bat, of the underground waters.''' (1) 



This proposition, ladies and g'entlemen, will do some good 
for our forests wheu thorong'lily accepted in the countries 
where the question of right of property has been an obstacle 
to the protection laws for saving the trees on the private lands. 

I make an appeal to you, gentlemen, of all different nations 
here represented to bring with you the ideas contained in this 
paper whose value lies only on the strong conviction with 
which I wrote it. 

Let us be united all over the world in this great and noblest 
campaign for the life of mankind, for the life of our own 
children, the water, the pure air, the' shade of relief of fatigue, 
the timber, in resume, the life itself. Let us profit by the 
great lessons of Gifford Pinchot, accepting the wise advise of 
greatest men of the past and present generations. And may 
this alarm-cry arouse the energies of the present for the solu- 
tion of the great problem of the future. 

MEANS ADVISED TO PREVENT THE CUTTING OF FOR- 
ESTS IN BRAZIL. 

After the approbation of the proposition 'contained in the 
first part of my address considering the protection of the for- 
ests as a measure of public safety, we must have some restriction 
from the states in regard to the use of the generative land of 
courses, establishing the protective areas, even approximately, 
according to the good sense, putting them under a provisory 
police of the tax collectors and the patriotism of the people, 
until we can get the resources for a most effective police. 

We must get annually from the Federal Congress some 
appropriation, however small, to start the National Forestry 
Reservation at the head of the great and navigable rivers, 
progressively enlarging such reservation until it has a suffi-ci- 
ent extension. 

I think that in general the forests would be preserved if 
the people knew how to use them systematically if efficient 
means of preservation of timber could be obtained, in order 
to use the softer and light wood as good material, avoiding, as 
said by the illustrious engineer, Joaquim Julio Proenca, the 



devastation of the virgin forests for hardwoods to be employed 
in construction of certain importance, principally railroads; 
if we could plant good species, growing fast to be used as fuel 
and good timber, for instance, the eucalyptus as is being done 
in California, and was advised in Minas Geraes by the dis- 
tinguished botanist (Migineer. Alvaro da Silveira. and if we 
could stop or diminish the clearing of forests or old process 
of burning the forests for fuel and agricultural ])urposes by 
divulging the scientific processes of cidtivation. and profit by 
using green wood as a fuel in great factories, using dry stoves 
heated by the furnace gases, as established by the deceased 
President Joao Pinheiro in his factory at Caete. Minas 
Geraes, Brazil. 

From these considerations we have many suggestions how 
to protect the trees, but. certainly, the suggested measures 
and those profitable ones found in many forestry codes in our 
states, must not be taken only by the Union, whose service, 
as I said before, must be as simple and economic as possible 
in order to be stable. 

The Federal Government in accordance with the states 
must help the development of the instruction on forestry, estab- 
lishing special forestry gardens, however small, connected with 
botanical liranch iu the engineering courses, for better knowl- 
edge and trial of species of rapid growth, suitable for con- 
struction and railroad ties: must promote replantion of resist- 
ant trees such as enealyptus in the arid region, principally 
where the sources permanently or temporarily appear; must 
promote the employing of light and white soft timber by giving 
premiums to the inventor (^f the best and most economic pro- 
cess for its preservation, and finally, must make every possible 
propaganda by publication of short and practical papers and 
so on among farmers on the influence and value of the forests. 

(1) In my book on the water supply and sewers of Caxambu, Minas 
Geraes, Brazil, I explained the influence of the forests upon the un- 
derground water in a chapter under the title "Preservation of the 
sources." 



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